Weighing in for Mr. Dypski

IT SHOULD BE obvious that Washington Irving never met Del. Raymond Dypski of Baltimore. For if he had, Mr. Irving never would have written: "who ever hears of fat men leading a riot, or herding together in turbulent mobs?-no-no, 'tis your lean hungry men who are continually worrying society, and setting the whole community by the ears."

Del Dypski, at 5'8" and 260 pounds, may very well be hungry, but he is not lean. With total disregard for the reformers in Annapolis who are forever harping about conflict of interest, Mr. Dypski is championing the cause of fat Marylanders and fat Americans.

The villains in the world of Del. Dypski are over-charging clothes manufacturers, bigoted employers and the entire weight-reduction industry. These people all turned up in a Maryland state study conducted at Mr. Dypski's behest. The delegate who once weighed 370 pounds spoke publicly of his own personal difficulty in buying a car. "The salesman has to shove me in behind the wheel and once I'm in I can't get out," Mr. Dypski explained; "I ask the salesman if he comes with the car, because without him, I can't get out."

In a time of political fragmentation, when old coalitions are breaking up and new ones have not yet formed, Del. Dypski may have hit upon something very big politically. As some of us know from our mirrors, fat people are everywhere. Fat knows no party, no region, no religion, no race. Fat is equally at home with young and with old and is no respecter of education.

But the Dypski commission did find discrimination toward fat people in Ivy League colleges admissions practices as well as in airplane and auditorium seats. A chair at Harvard, the commission seems to be saying, may be just as unavailable to the overweight as a chair at the Bijou. As for the rejection rate of the obese at the Ivy League schools, Mr. Dypski had this to say: "It's just one more example of discrimination in this country, just one more case where we don't measure up."

While the delegate's choice of language may not be apt, his point is well taken. Come to think about it, with all this talk about cutting the "fat" out of the federal budget and arguments about who's the real "heavy" in inflation, we fully support this revolt led by an admittedly fat man. No more talk about a "lean, muscular" military from all these senatorial Jack Spratts. It's time to take a stand with Del. Raymond Dypski on too-small church pews, extra-size garments that are clearly not Sanforized and all the fatheads who produce them. Good luck, Mr. Dypski, and Godspeed. (Fat chance.)